News

Drop in alcohol-related primary care consultations 2012-13

Details

29 January 2014

The alcohol section on the ScotPHO website has been updated to include new data on alcohol-related primary care consultations. These data can be found on the Health Harm page of the ScotPHO alcohol section.

Key Points The information from primary care is based on estimates from Practice Team Information. New data has been added relating to the financial year 2012/13. The key points are:

In 2012/13, there were an estimated 94,630 alcohol-related primary care consultations by 48,420 patients, a substantial fall from 109,170 consultations by 57,470 patients in 2011/12.

Forty-six percent of the patients seen for alcohol misuse in 2012/13 were aged between 45 and 64, but consultation rates were highest for those aged 65 and over.

In patients aged between 18 and 44 who consulted their GP for alcohol misuse in 2012/13, men were more than twice as likely to consult for anxiety or for depression compared to all males who consulted a GP, whereas females were around three times more likely to consult for anxiety or for depression compared with all females who consulted a GP.

There were two-and-a-half times more patients consulting for alcohol misuse in the most deprived quintile compared with the least deprived quintile.